Four Page First Person Observation on Student Protests
Source: "Diana Flores"
I've written a 4-pg first person observation of the student protests at
City Hall. I hope you will read it. I also hope you will share it with
others.
When students come out as they did this week, they are putting
themselves in real danger of being arrested for breaking the law. They
put themselves in real danger of becoming convicted felons because they
do not know the laws regarding government buildings and others that
could be applied when they walk out and gather without knowing how to do
it legally. Please pass the word. Gracias
Diana Flores
Trustee, District 6
Dallas Community Colleges
214/337-5150
dlflores@hotmail.com
Observations and Lessons Learned from the Student Protests in Dallas by Diana Flores, Trustee, Dallas County Community College District
I was at City Hall on Monday and Tuesday (March 27th and 28th, 2006) when students walked out of the schools. On Monday, most of the students came from Dallas high schools, with a few students joining them from Carrollton-Farmers Branch and Richardson. On Tuesday, the students again came from Dallas high schools. They were joined by a large number of students from Irving. Smaller groups of students came from Grand Prairie, Plano and Richardson. There were marked differences between the students who were at City Hall on Monday and those who came on Tuesday. Other adults were also there – DISD staff, community leaders, and a few parents.
Many of the adults who were there arrived because we know that gatherings such as this can pose the potential for danger, and we wanted to help assure that the students would be safe from harm from themselves or others. The police department did a great job of this too. We were also there because we wanted to get them back in school. Observations on Monday, March 27th The students who came to City Hall on Monday from Skyline High School came with identified leaders, a clear understanding of the issue, and a way to communicate with their group. They carried a bullhorn with them and were able to spread their message and be heard. They allowed the adults who were there to address them; they showed us respect and they heard us.
Our message to them on Monday was: It is great that as young people you are raising your voice and want to be heard. However, there is a time and place for everything. The time to demonstrate against injustice is not on a school day during school hours. If we want to change the law, to make a positive difference for our community, we need to do it by getting an education, learning how to run for Congress, and becoming the congress men and women in Washington, D.C. who will pass laws that are just and right for all communities! You cannot do that if you do not get your education. You cannot do that if you do not stay in school.
The students who came on Monday knew that we had heard them. We knew that the students had heard us. We asked them to please behave themselves in a manner that would bring pride to their parents and to all. We asked them to please do as their parents did at the rally on Saturday, March 25th – to obey all laws, to leave City Hall Plaza as clean as they found it. The students did just that. When they left to go back to school, it was done in an orderly fashion, there were no laws broken and everything was left in the condition it had been found. We thought that it was over with. The students made their statement and they went back to school.
We thought that they would stay in school and prepare to join us in the MegaMarcha on April 9th. Observations on Tuesday, March 28th That morning about 9:30 a.m., I received a phone call and was informed that the students were again walking out. Some were walking out and headed to the DISD Administration Building on Ross. Some were walking out and headed to City Hall again. I was asked to go to City Hall. We had to divide up and cover the different areas to try to assure student safety and to get the students back in school. When I arrived at City Hall, there were no students there. I was relieved.
I reported to my colleague that there were no students. He told me to wait, not to leave City Hall because they were on their way. The first wave of students who arrived were not organized, did not have a bullhorn to communicate to the group, were not as receptive to hear from the adults. As we, the adults, were moving through the crowd, speaking to small groups at a time, a large number of them ran into City Hall. Immediately the police took action, as it was their duty to do. No one had any idea what the students wanted to do. Did they simply want to demonstrate inside City Hall? Did they want to begin destroying things? No one knew, so, again, the police did what they had to do – quickly go into enforcement mode, close the doors to City Hall so that more students could not get in, and begin to remove those that were inside.
Those of us (adults) outside knew that we had a real potential for danger. It would only take one or two students to begin to provoke the situation for it to get out of hand and for more severe police action to be required. Those of us who were there to try to help calm down the situation worked exhaustively to identify some students who were seen as leaders to speak to the rest of the students and ask them to calm down. Councilwoman Elba Garcia addressed them, but they did not calm down immediately. Finally, as all the students were escorted out of City Hall, they began to disperse and march around the plaza or mill around in groups. Finally, the tense situation was diffused but at any moment it could have gotten dangerous again.
We were finally able to get that first wave of students back on buses and back to school. However, we could not hope that it was over because we knew that several hundred more were on the way. The next wave arrived, and the situation was again the same. There were no identified leaders, no way to address them, no way to direct their energies into positive manifestations. They began jumping into the pool in the plaza. They left trash everywhere.
They left trash in the pool. Some (not all) disrespected the building and some (not all) disrespected us. They were protesting, demanding that immigrants be respected, but some (not all) were not respecting us, were not respecting the place where they were gathered. They gave a very bad image of our youth. Again, we were able to get that wave of students on the buses and on their way back to school. A city worker, un mejicano, had to get in the pool and begin cleaning all the trash out of it. It took him quite a while to do it.
Then came a third wave, a third wave of students who had walked out of school and who came to City Hall, and again the scene repeated itself. And again they jumped into the pool, they got into the floating sculpture, they hung the Mexican flag on the floating sculpture – ¡que falta de respeto! How would Mexican citizens in Mexico feel if U.S. citizens protesting Mexican laws would disrespect the Zocalo and hang the U.S flag in the Zocalo? TV cameras were everywhere.
Newspaper photographers were everywhere, everywhere images of our youth disrespecting City Hall were being captured for all time. And, yet, we say we want respect but our young people did not show the respect that they are demanding from others. ¡Que verguenza! I asked some of the students please not to jump in the pool.
I told them that the group who had done that before had left a lot of trash and it was one of the ones they say they are fighting for that had to clean the trash that was left behind. As I walked by the city worker when he was cleaning out the pool the first time, he asked me what I thought about what was going on. I responded to him the way I have responded to all who have asked me that question: I am very proud of our students for speaking out against injustice, but I am not proud that they are doing it on a school day.
There is a right way to do things and this is not the right way. Anyway, as I asked this next wave of students please not to jump in the pool and as I told them that it was one of our own who had to clean their trash, one of the students answered back: “Why doesn’t a white person do it?” I responded: “Because that white person got their education so they don’t have to clean anyone’s trash. Because the worker who was cleaning your trash didn’t have the opportunity to get an education. Because each and every one of you do have that opportunity, but so many of you throw it away without realizing the damage you are doing to yourself, to your family and to the community when you do not get an education.”
Some of the students listened to what I had to say, but others kept jumping in the pool. Some Saving Graces from Tuesday: Once City Hall was stormed, there were some students who quickly understood the potential for danger and for the situation to get out of hand. They began helping us calm their peers down so that more police action would not be necessary. There were four or five students who had been at the rally on Saturday and who understood the importance of respecting where they were and leaving it as it was found.
They did as their parents did on Saturday -- they took it upon themselves to begin to clean up all the trash that was left on the plaza at City Hall. Because of this small group of students, at least there were no pictures that could go over the wires or that could be printed of a trash-strewn City Hall plaza. Shortly after noon on Tuesday, after some students had stormed into City Hall, and because other groups had continued to walk out and were making their way to City Hall, a few of us put our heads together about the situation.
We agreed that as community leaders, we had to put out a call to parents and students to stop – to stop the walkouts because of the potential for danger to the students and because of the potential that they were going to begin to get arrested for disruptive behavior. We called for a press conference in the City Hall Flag Room at 4:30 pm. We asked some students to join us.
The press conference was held; it received good coverage; the students gave a good message. Observations on Wednesday, March 29th We hope that the call that went out to stop the student protests on school days worked. On Wednesday there were no mass walk-outs by students in Dallas. We hear that there might be some on Friday. We hope that will not happen because the students and their parents have realized if the walk-outs continue, there can be serious consequences. It is our hope that when students feel the need to protest, to demonstrate, to make their voices heard, they will do it in the right way, at the right time, not during school, and not without organization that will ensure the protests are held in a safe and legal manner.
Lessons Learned Respect: If we want to be respected, we must give to others the respect that we want from them. That means obeying U.S. laws. If there are unjust laws, then we must work to change them, but until they are changed, we must obey them or risk becoming criminals. Consequences for Criminal Action: It is possible that some of the students who came to City Hall were either undocumented or resident aliens – they were not citizens. It is possible that if things had gotten more out of control, the police would have arrested students. It is possible that among those who could have been arrested were undocumented and resident alien students. It is possible that if they were arrested, they could have been charged and convicted of a crime, therefore making them criminals.
As criminals, this could have been the consequence: (a) the undocumented students would have become criminals, would have been deported and would have forever lost the right to petition for residency if the laws were changed; (b) the resident alien students would have lost their green card, would have been deported and would have lost their right to ever again regain residency. All that the students were fighting for could have been lost in a few moments of stupidity. Students: Is that what you want?
The U.S. Flag: We are in the United States. We want the United States to change those laws that we consider unjust for immigrants. As such, the only flag we should be flying in the United States when we are protesting to change a law is the U.S. flag, not the Mexican flag, not the Salvadoran flag, not the Columbian flag, not the flag of any other country. If we want to be fully accepted by this country, then we must also fully accept and honor the flag of this country. Again, if I, as a U.S. citizen were living in Mexico and were trying to get a Mexican law changed, if I were protesting in Mexico (I do not know that I would have that right in Mexico), and I was carrying the U.S. flag, and I placed that U.S. flag on City Hall, how would the Mexican citizens feel? When Students Should Protest: It is good for students to protest and make their voice heard, but it is not good for them to leave school to do that.
There is a time and place for everything. The time for them to protest IS NOT on a school day. It is either after school or on the weekend, organized in a way that will not lead to a dangerous situation, and with leaflets of information passed out so that all the students will be fully educated and informed about the issue they are protesting or the right they are fighting for. By passing out leaflets to inform and educate, the students will not be made to look like fools when they are asked,
“What is your protest about?” and their answer is “I don’t know,” or “I’m not sure.” Take It to the Next Level: Protesting alone and apart from other action does no good. We MUST begin to participate at all levels of government. This can be done by volunteering for committees, attending forums that the city or other governing agencies have regarding proposed changes they want to make.
By doing this, we begin to learn how to be leaders, how to be those in charge of city government, of state government, those in Congress and in Washington. Importance of Education: In order to become leaders, in order to take on important roles in society, our students MUST, MUST finish their education. They must graduate from high school, graduate from college, get their master’s degree and up to their doctorate. That way, we become among los meros meros in whatever field we choose instead of just those who clean and cook for others.
Importance of the Vote: In order to have leaders that will favor our community with fair and just laws, WE NEED TO VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!!!! If politicians know that each and every election, without fail, we will get out to vote and vote in large numbers, they will think twice about proposing laws such as HR 4437.
They will think twice about doing anything that can be detrimental to us. As an example: Chicanos/Latinos number about 40 million in the U.S., however, to this point, we have had no real voice or power. The Jewish people number less than 5 million in this country, however the U.S. does not take one action toward Israel (the Jewish state) without making sure that the Jewish community in the U.S. is in favor of that action. Why? Because the Jewish people get out to vote, vote, vote, vote in each and every election.
They are concentrated in key areas of the U.S., such as New York, and politicians want their votes. If the politicians knew that Chicanos/Latinos would do the same thing, each and every election, they would also begin to get our advice and consent before thinking about enacting any law that would be detrimental to our immigrant families.
So, I hope that this generation of students who walked out in protest of proposed unjust immigration laws will learn what many of us from past generations have still not learned: Get educated, get involved, vote! When you do something, do it the right way, the smart way, y no de un modo que va a dar mal imagen – do it in a way that will do more good than harm to the cause. When we are advocating for something which is right and just, we must act in a way that is right and just. And always remember, ¡Si Se Puede!
I've written a 4-pg first person observation of the student protests at
City Hall. I hope you will read it. I also hope you will share it with
others.
When students come out as they did this week, they are putting
themselves in real danger of being arrested for breaking the law. They
put themselves in real danger of becoming convicted felons because they
do not know the laws regarding government buildings and others that
could be applied when they walk out and gather without knowing how to do
it legally. Please pass the word. Gracias
Diana Flores
Trustee, District 6
Dallas Community Colleges
214/337-5150
dlflores@hotmail.com
Observations and Lessons Learned from the Student Protests in Dallas by Diana Flores, Trustee, Dallas County Community College District
I was at City Hall on Monday and Tuesday (March 27th and 28th, 2006) when students walked out of the schools. On Monday, most of the students came from Dallas high schools, with a few students joining them from Carrollton-Farmers Branch and Richardson. On Tuesday, the students again came from Dallas high schools. They were joined by a large number of students from Irving. Smaller groups of students came from Grand Prairie, Plano and Richardson. There were marked differences between the students who were at City Hall on Monday and those who came on Tuesday. Other adults were also there – DISD staff, community leaders, and a few parents.
Many of the adults who were there arrived because we know that gatherings such as this can pose the potential for danger, and we wanted to help assure that the students would be safe from harm from themselves or others. The police department did a great job of this too. We were also there because we wanted to get them back in school. Observations on Monday, March 27th The students who came to City Hall on Monday from Skyline High School came with identified leaders, a clear understanding of the issue, and a way to communicate with their group. They carried a bullhorn with them and were able to spread their message and be heard. They allowed the adults who were there to address them; they showed us respect and they heard us.
Our message to them on Monday was: It is great that as young people you are raising your voice and want to be heard. However, there is a time and place for everything. The time to demonstrate against injustice is not on a school day during school hours. If we want to change the law, to make a positive difference for our community, we need to do it by getting an education, learning how to run for Congress, and becoming the congress men and women in Washington, D.C. who will pass laws that are just and right for all communities! You cannot do that if you do not get your education. You cannot do that if you do not stay in school.
The students who came on Monday knew that we had heard them. We knew that the students had heard us. We asked them to please behave themselves in a manner that would bring pride to their parents and to all. We asked them to please do as their parents did at the rally on Saturday, March 25th – to obey all laws, to leave City Hall Plaza as clean as they found it. The students did just that. When they left to go back to school, it was done in an orderly fashion, there were no laws broken and everything was left in the condition it had been found. We thought that it was over with. The students made their statement and they went back to school.
We thought that they would stay in school and prepare to join us in the MegaMarcha on April 9th. Observations on Tuesday, March 28th That morning about 9:30 a.m., I received a phone call and was informed that the students were again walking out. Some were walking out and headed to the DISD Administration Building on Ross. Some were walking out and headed to City Hall again. I was asked to go to City Hall. We had to divide up and cover the different areas to try to assure student safety and to get the students back in school. When I arrived at City Hall, there were no students there. I was relieved.
I reported to my colleague that there were no students. He told me to wait, not to leave City Hall because they were on their way. The first wave of students who arrived were not organized, did not have a bullhorn to communicate to the group, were not as receptive to hear from the adults. As we, the adults, were moving through the crowd, speaking to small groups at a time, a large number of them ran into City Hall. Immediately the police took action, as it was their duty to do. No one had any idea what the students wanted to do. Did they simply want to demonstrate inside City Hall? Did they want to begin destroying things? No one knew, so, again, the police did what they had to do – quickly go into enforcement mode, close the doors to City Hall so that more students could not get in, and begin to remove those that were inside.
Those of us (adults) outside knew that we had a real potential for danger. It would only take one or two students to begin to provoke the situation for it to get out of hand and for more severe police action to be required. Those of us who were there to try to help calm down the situation worked exhaustively to identify some students who were seen as leaders to speak to the rest of the students and ask them to calm down. Councilwoman Elba Garcia addressed them, but they did not calm down immediately. Finally, as all the students were escorted out of City Hall, they began to disperse and march around the plaza or mill around in groups. Finally, the tense situation was diffused but at any moment it could have gotten dangerous again.
We were finally able to get that first wave of students back on buses and back to school. However, we could not hope that it was over because we knew that several hundred more were on the way. The next wave arrived, and the situation was again the same. There were no identified leaders, no way to address them, no way to direct their energies into positive manifestations. They began jumping into the pool in the plaza. They left trash everywhere.
They left trash in the pool. Some (not all) disrespected the building and some (not all) disrespected us. They were protesting, demanding that immigrants be respected, but some (not all) were not respecting us, were not respecting the place where they were gathered. They gave a very bad image of our youth. Again, we were able to get that wave of students on the buses and on their way back to school. A city worker, un mejicano, had to get in the pool and begin cleaning all the trash out of it. It took him quite a while to do it.
Then came a third wave, a third wave of students who had walked out of school and who came to City Hall, and again the scene repeated itself. And again they jumped into the pool, they got into the floating sculpture, they hung the Mexican flag on the floating sculpture – ¡que falta de respeto! How would Mexican citizens in Mexico feel if U.S. citizens protesting Mexican laws would disrespect the Zocalo and hang the U.S flag in the Zocalo? TV cameras were everywhere.
Newspaper photographers were everywhere, everywhere images of our youth disrespecting City Hall were being captured for all time. And, yet, we say we want respect but our young people did not show the respect that they are demanding from others. ¡Que verguenza! I asked some of the students please not to jump in the pool.
I told them that the group who had done that before had left a lot of trash and it was one of the ones they say they are fighting for that had to clean the trash that was left behind. As I walked by the city worker when he was cleaning out the pool the first time, he asked me what I thought about what was going on. I responded to him the way I have responded to all who have asked me that question: I am very proud of our students for speaking out against injustice, but I am not proud that they are doing it on a school day.
There is a right way to do things and this is not the right way. Anyway, as I asked this next wave of students please not to jump in the pool and as I told them that it was one of our own who had to clean their trash, one of the students answered back: “Why doesn’t a white person do it?” I responded: “Because that white person got their education so they don’t have to clean anyone’s trash. Because the worker who was cleaning your trash didn’t have the opportunity to get an education. Because each and every one of you do have that opportunity, but so many of you throw it away without realizing the damage you are doing to yourself, to your family and to the community when you do not get an education.”
Some of the students listened to what I had to say, but others kept jumping in the pool. Some Saving Graces from Tuesday: Once City Hall was stormed, there were some students who quickly understood the potential for danger and for the situation to get out of hand. They began helping us calm their peers down so that more police action would not be necessary. There were four or five students who had been at the rally on Saturday and who understood the importance of respecting where they were and leaving it as it was found.
They did as their parents did on Saturday -- they took it upon themselves to begin to clean up all the trash that was left on the plaza at City Hall. Because of this small group of students, at least there were no pictures that could go over the wires or that could be printed of a trash-strewn City Hall plaza. Shortly after noon on Tuesday, after some students had stormed into City Hall, and because other groups had continued to walk out and were making their way to City Hall, a few of us put our heads together about the situation.
We agreed that as community leaders, we had to put out a call to parents and students to stop – to stop the walkouts because of the potential for danger to the students and because of the potential that they were going to begin to get arrested for disruptive behavior. We called for a press conference in the City Hall Flag Room at 4:30 pm. We asked some students to join us.
The press conference was held; it received good coverage; the students gave a good message. Observations on Wednesday, March 29th We hope that the call that went out to stop the student protests on school days worked. On Wednesday there were no mass walk-outs by students in Dallas. We hear that there might be some on Friday. We hope that will not happen because the students and their parents have realized if the walk-outs continue, there can be serious consequences. It is our hope that when students feel the need to protest, to demonstrate, to make their voices heard, they will do it in the right way, at the right time, not during school, and not without organization that will ensure the protests are held in a safe and legal manner.
Lessons Learned Respect: If we want to be respected, we must give to others the respect that we want from them. That means obeying U.S. laws. If there are unjust laws, then we must work to change them, but until they are changed, we must obey them or risk becoming criminals. Consequences for Criminal Action: It is possible that some of the students who came to City Hall were either undocumented or resident aliens – they were not citizens. It is possible that if things had gotten more out of control, the police would have arrested students. It is possible that among those who could have been arrested were undocumented and resident alien students. It is possible that if they were arrested, they could have been charged and convicted of a crime, therefore making them criminals.
As criminals, this could have been the consequence: (a) the undocumented students would have become criminals, would have been deported and would have forever lost the right to petition for residency if the laws were changed; (b) the resident alien students would have lost their green card, would have been deported and would have lost their right to ever again regain residency. All that the students were fighting for could have been lost in a few moments of stupidity. Students: Is that what you want?
The U.S. Flag: We are in the United States. We want the United States to change those laws that we consider unjust for immigrants. As such, the only flag we should be flying in the United States when we are protesting to change a law is the U.S. flag, not the Mexican flag, not the Salvadoran flag, not the Columbian flag, not the flag of any other country. If we want to be fully accepted by this country, then we must also fully accept and honor the flag of this country. Again, if I, as a U.S. citizen were living in Mexico and were trying to get a Mexican law changed, if I were protesting in Mexico (I do not know that I would have that right in Mexico), and I was carrying the U.S. flag, and I placed that U.S. flag on City Hall, how would the Mexican citizens feel? When Students Should Protest: It is good for students to protest and make their voice heard, but it is not good for them to leave school to do that.
There is a time and place for everything. The time for them to protest IS NOT on a school day. It is either after school or on the weekend, organized in a way that will not lead to a dangerous situation, and with leaflets of information passed out so that all the students will be fully educated and informed about the issue they are protesting or the right they are fighting for. By passing out leaflets to inform and educate, the students will not be made to look like fools when they are asked,
“What is your protest about?” and their answer is “I don’t know,” or “I’m not sure.” Take It to the Next Level: Protesting alone and apart from other action does no good. We MUST begin to participate at all levels of government. This can be done by volunteering for committees, attending forums that the city or other governing agencies have regarding proposed changes they want to make.
By doing this, we begin to learn how to be leaders, how to be those in charge of city government, of state government, those in Congress and in Washington. Importance of Education: In order to become leaders, in order to take on important roles in society, our students MUST, MUST finish their education. They must graduate from high school, graduate from college, get their master’s degree and up to their doctorate. That way, we become among los meros meros in whatever field we choose instead of just those who clean and cook for others.
Importance of the Vote: In order to have leaders that will favor our community with fair and just laws, WE NEED TO VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!!!! If politicians know that each and every election, without fail, we will get out to vote and vote in large numbers, they will think twice about proposing laws such as HR 4437.
They will think twice about doing anything that can be detrimental to us. As an example: Chicanos/Latinos number about 40 million in the U.S., however, to this point, we have had no real voice or power. The Jewish people number less than 5 million in this country, however the U.S. does not take one action toward Israel (the Jewish state) without making sure that the Jewish community in the U.S. is in favor of that action. Why? Because the Jewish people get out to vote, vote, vote, vote in each and every election.
They are concentrated in key areas of the U.S., such as New York, and politicians want their votes. If the politicians knew that Chicanos/Latinos would do the same thing, each and every election, they would also begin to get our advice and consent before thinking about enacting any law that would be detrimental to our immigrant families.
So, I hope that this generation of students who walked out in protest of proposed unjust immigration laws will learn what many of us from past generations have still not learned: Get educated, get involved, vote! When you do something, do it the right way, the smart way, y no de un modo que va a dar mal imagen – do it in a way that will do more good than harm to the cause. When we are advocating for something which is right and just, we must act in a way that is right and just. And always remember, ¡Si Se Puede!
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